DESIGN FLAW

Musically eclectic Washington crew aim for (and at) the White House

‘WHERE ONCE THERE was silence, now there’s a race to fill every moment with violent creation,’ sings Design Flaw’s Navid Marvi on Silence, the first track on the Washington DC band’s debut EP, Beasts Of A Future Decay.

“We wrote that song in 2020, during the pandemic and the tension leading up to the [Presidential] election”, the singer/guitarist explains. “That lyric was inspired by the fact that everyone had something to say.”

As a lifelong DC native, Navid found the USA’S pandemic-era politics – the election, the #Blacklivesmatter protests, the Capitol riot – inescapable. “DC’S always been a place where hard conversations happen”, explains lead guitarist Gibran Esa. “That’s a good thing, but there’s a toxicity to it. There’s always a political angle to everything.”

While Beasts Of A Future Decay is no exception, using lockdowns and online discourse as lyrical throughlines, musically, it’s more eclectic. Silence is a melodic post-hardcore anthem, Ghost escalates to screeching blackgaze, Dusk is entirely ambient and Andromeda is a post-metal behemoth, with Navid’s angelic vocals and Gibran’s shimmering guitar tone tying everything together.

“I’ve never met anybody who listens to as many different styles of music as Navid”, smiles Gibran, whose bandmate holds up everything from Cult Of Luna to alt-pop/r’n’b star Moses Sumney as influences. And while Beasts Of A Future Decay has only just come out, the guys are already planning the follow up.

“We’re recording our next four songs – the drums are all done”, he says, jokingly adding that Design Flaw are thinking as big as it gets. “I want to be President of the United States.”

BEASTS OF A FUTURE DECAY IS OUT NOW